Reloading is DEFINITELY where it's at... I can't remember the last time I carried non-reloads in the field. I get more fps, more impact energy and better bullet performance form my reloads than I ever did from factory ammo

Heck, if I had hit this brute with, say, factory .30-06 round, I would not have had the confidence that the bullet would have made it completely past the shoulder ball joint (I hit it directly on the ball & socket joint, the thickest bone on a deer's front end) and on into the lungs where the real show-stopping took place.

Hitting the ball joint was a bit of an accident, I usually prefer to hit slightly higher to clip the heart and also hit lungs, but shooting free-hand under pressure, you sometimes move off mark by an inch or two... but when reloading you plan for the worst